


The Faux Pas that Leads to the Faux Date

by SinnamonCynonym



Category: The Unleashed - Strawburry17plays (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:35:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29447901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinnamonCynonym/pseuds/SinnamonCynonym
Summary: This is just what I imagine is the lead up to the faux Phara date in episode 1 of The Unleashed.Phee winds up with an accidental date for Valentine's Day thanks to the Rift's courtship rituals.
Relationships: pre Phee/Mara
Kudos: 5





	The Faux Pas that Leads to the Faux Date

**Author's Note:**

> I certainly do not write for the Unleashed, I just enjoy the show a lot. My writing in no way is meant to offend anyone, especially the creators and players of the Unleashed. Also, this was only very quickly proofread so, there are most likely grammatical errors.

Phee felt a distinct burn in her eyes, similar to the nights she spent in quarantine, absorbing as much as she could about the strange language of English. One she was able to see again, her eyes focus on a tall figure, Lucas Haunesson, a light elemental. Lucas was smiling at Phee, not like a warm smile that she would get from Charlie nor like the secret smiles she would get from Mara, but a smile that looked akin to a predator sizing up their prey. Phee has never spoken to Lucas, though she was unsure why Charlie told her to avoid him. He seemed to be about 6’4”, a sharp leap from her (strong) 5’4” frame, but otherwise, he was unassuming. Messy blonde hair laid atop his head, shaggy in an I-just-woke-up-this-way-just-kidding-this-took-me-hours-kinda way. He was lanky, long arms and long legs, almost comically long. He raises an eyebrow at her, his smile shifting into an even more dangerous smirk.

“Hello, Phee. I just wanted to tell you I really admire your choice of wearing that outfit. I know I would never be able to stomach wearing anything like that.” Phee tilts her head, trying to understand if she was just complimented or insulted. Phee prides herself on her intuition, it often got her out of a lot of tight spots. Luckily, mid calculation, Charlie appears, wrapping her arm around Phee’s shoulder.

“Hey Lukey boy, you were just leaving, right?” Phee recognizes Charlie’s tone, the tone she often uses to charm soldiers into bringing in contraband. While the tone is usually successful in getting people to do what she wishes, Lucas only laughs at Charlie.

“Ah, Charlie, almost didn’t see you there! You still begging for scraps from the Elementals because all the Physicals already know what kind of weakling you are?” Lucas inches closer to Phee, grabbing her wrist, easily pulling her away from Charlie’s embrace. “Look, Phee and I were just having a nice conversation about her brave fashion choices.” Phee began struggling, trying to free herself from Lucas’s grasp. She fiddles for a bit before she forms ice on her wrist that Lucas holds. Lucas continues walking with gritted teeth till Phee and Lucas end up in class, a class focused on Elementals connecting to nature. Charlie quickly makes her way to the classroom only being stopped when a teacher steps towards her to stop her. In the classroom, Phee now sits stunned next to Lucas. Is this what it feels like to be kidnapped? “Great, now that we are alone, I’d like to ask you something, Phee.” Phee opens her mouth to refute whatever he says next, though she immediately gets shushed by Lucas. The professor looks at the two of them but continues writing on the chalkboard. As soon as the teacher’s eyes leave them Lucas begins again. “You are so much more attractive when you do not speak.” Phee glares at Lucas, a glare that Phee believes to be fearsome yet it only results in Lucas chuckling. “Oooh that’s not a happy face, you look like a serious elf with that face and your ridiculous pointy ears!” Phee feels her ears begin to burn, not with shame, but with anger. Phee’s ears are a part of her identity, a hallmark for all Lumerians. There is a proverb on Lumeria the surmounts to the fact that a Lumin’s ears grow based on the love that lives inside them. Each night when she was a child and it was time for bed, Phee’s mother would kiss both her ears, whispering that with each night Phee’s ears will grow as her love for Phee grows every night. Phee was okay with people insulting her intelligence or her clothes, she knows that inhabitants of the Rift lack the maturity that comes with age. However, she cannot stand for anyone attacking her ears, one of the few remnants from her home that she has in this strange realm. A layer of ice forms on Phee’s fist, cracking quietly as ice spike form, without thinking Phee punches Lucas in the shoulder, drawing the attention of the teacher, Ms. Lao. Lucas winces and pushes Phee away from him. An authoritative voice fills the classroom, Ms. Lao, a sound Elemental, has no qualms about being loud.

“Get out of my classroom Phee! I will not tolerate such violence in my classroom.” When it looks like it will be just Phee getting the brunt of Ms. Lao’s shrieks, Ms. Lao turns to face Lucas. “You too, Mr. Haunesson, I am not naïve enough to believe that Phee punched you without some prompting. Both of you go to the principal’s office immediately.” Phee leaves first quickly making her way to the principal’s office, taking the path that Charlie so often has to take. Though Phee left first, with a few quick strides Lucas catches up to her. Phee curses his long legs

“That really hurt, Phee. You got to stop being so sensitive. It’s not my fault that you have stupid ears.” Phee grits her teeth, only staying silent because they have already made it to the principal’s office. Inside the small office is an irate Charlie speaking (or maybe yelling) at the principal. Charlie pauses looking over to see Lucas and Phee behind her. The principal broadly smiles. 

“Well now Charlotte, there seem to be no problems here, Phee is no longer trapped in a room with Lucas!” Charlie begins to retort yet the principal pays her no mind. “What seems to be the problem here, you two?” 

“Sorry, to interrupt sir, we just had a minor power problem. You see, Phee here is pretty clumsy and while she was trying to swat a fly in class, she punched me instead. Ms. Lao thought we were fighting, and well, here we are.” The principal’s eyebrows were inching closer to his hairline in disbelief. 

“Right, the old meant to hit a fly excuse.” The principal clearly does not believe Lucas nonetheless, he looks amused rather than upset. “You two are quite lucky I am in a good mood, it would be a shame for you to have detention of Valentine’s Day, so I will let you off with a warning, as long as Phee promises to not punch any more flies.” Lucas smiles and nods, nudging Phee with his elbow to do the same. The principal shoos Charlie, Phee, and Lucas away, closing the office door after they all leave.

“What the heck Lucas, a fly was your best excuse?!” Charlie is visibly annoyed by Lucas, confused why he covered for Phee. 

“Listen Short-stack, this doesn’t concern you.” Turning away from Charlie to instead face Phee, Lucas sends her a strained looking smile. “I did so Phee here can properly educate me tonight about her weirdo planet’s customs because she obviously follows quite a few weird ones." Phee goes from confused to insulted, ready to tell this Lucas kid to leave her alone. “Unless she’s too scared to. Did someone already forget about her planet?” Lucas’s smirk is briefly wiped off by an irate Charlie King and a fist to his face. Lucas shrugs the punch off, only looking at Phee with a raised eyebrow. 

“Fine.” Phee agrees, if Lucas wanted an education so badly, she would give it to him, pulling out all the stops so he knows just how beautiful her planet is. Lucas wears a smile once more, this one actually looking genuine, with a touch of something Phee cannot place. 

“Great. I’ll see you at 6:00 pm at the Maximum. Be sure to dress nicely, would not want you to be accidentally thrown out by the staff.” With that Lucas leaves two girls standing in the hallway. The girls exchange eye contact as they started walking to gym, a class they shared, unsure who should speak first, Charlie ends up starting the conversation.

“Wow Phee, looks like you got a Valentine’s Day date with the insufferable Lucas Haunesson.” Anything Phee was planning to say went out the window at the word “date”.

“A date is a romantic event is it not?” Charlie begins to nod and explain but Phee’s attention gets pulled elsewhere, a mage was approaching them, a mage that Phee has quickly become quite attached to, Mara Greer. 

“That’s right Phee, a date is romantic in nature. Did Charlie finally get asked on a date by Jax? He was particularly nervous during his reading yesterday, he kept glancing at you and looking at his hands.” Mara smiles playfully at Charlie, trying and failing to wiggle her eyebrows at her. 

“It’s not me with the date tonight. Lucas the light Elemental just asked Phee out and she actually agreed!” Mara frons at this information and turns to Phee.

“What, no! He did not ‘ask me out’, he was insulting me for most of the morning.” Phee is certain that she would know if Lucas was attempting to get a date with her. Surely, the Rift’s courtship rituals were not that different than Lumeria’s. 

“What are you talking about Charlie? Don’t confuse Phee like that! He was probably just being an idiot, insulting Phee. Everyone knows Lucas is just a jerk.” Mara sends a reassuring smile to Phee. Charlie shakes her head adamantly. 

“I can excuse Phee for not understanding all the weird relationship type things that happen, but surely you know the story of the little boy who would pull on the pigtails of the girl they like. Lucas was just pulling on Phee’s pigtails.” Mara’s face scrunches with disgust and disdain.

“That seems remarkably inefficient. You, humans, are so strange. He does realize he could just talk to her like a normal person, right? A mage would never be caught being so childish ‘pulling on someone’s pigtails’.” Charlie rolls her eyes, choosing to ignore Mara’s mage superiority comment, as she walks up to Mara placing her hand on Mara’s shoulder. 

“Ah yes, all hail Queen Mara, master of talking about her feelings.” If one looks closely one could see the steady spread of pink making its way onto Mara’s face. Phee, who was previously zoning out jumped back into the conversation.

“That’s funny because it’s not true.” Phee laughs along with Charlie, happy that she correctly understood Charlie’s sarcasm. The girls have finally made their way to the opening gym doors, momentarily forgetting Phee’s predicament.

Phee prepared as well as she could for this possible “date” with Lucas. If Lucas was going into this situation believing this would be a nice date, he had another thing coming. Phee prepares notebook upon notebook with details about Lumeria, all of the best parts of her culture, and all the frightening tales told to her by old explorers. She’s ready to argue, to fight, to win. Charlie taught her about arguments here in the Rift, taught her how to destroy, no, conquer her enemies. Phee lets out a slightly maniacal laugh before making her way to The Maximum.

Phee takes in the sights of The Maximum, this was her first time actually inside the building, Charlie took Phee on a tour of the Rift after Phee fell into the portal that brought her in the Rift. Phee made her way to a booth in the leftmost bottom corner of the restaurant, always feeling safer when she can see the entirety of a room, an old trick her parents taught her. To her right, she sees a table of two mages she vaguely recognizes and then an electricity Elemental sitting alone, at the top right corner of the restaurant looking at the two mages. On Charlie’s little tour of the cafeteria, these two mages were part of the mage loners, mages who were fascinated with human culture. Phee watches as the two mages enter a heated conversation, getting louder and louder, seemingly arguing over something called “Home Alone”. Phee struggles to not completely eavesdrop on their conversation but there is something about one of the mages that capture her attention. Phee struggles to remember the mage’s name, mentally flipping between the names Em or Peggy. Either way, Phee feels drawn to the girl. The girl who despite seemingly being in an argument was smiling, her eyes alighting with amusement and something else, something tender. She would have to ask Charlie if all mages’ eyes sparkle like that, as the sparkle in Em/Peggy(?) eyes was one she saw in Mara’s eyes whenever she spoke about the Rift, about her home. Em/Peggy(?) was looking at the other mage as if she were her home, her tether in this weird Rift society. Home. The word sending a shiver down Phee’s spine as she momentarily is saddened with thoughts of her home, the home that was brutally ripped from her. Though saddened, Phee felt emboldened. She is here, at this loud diner to defend her home, her home that she loves. 

Phee waits another ten minutes till Lucas arrives, bright smile and all. He meets Phee at the table looking down at the notebooks strewn across the table. With his signature eyebrow raise, he looks at Phee and motions at the notebooks.

“Are these all the love letters you wrote for me? I’m flattered.” Lucas moves to brush some of the notebooks aside, stopping when Phee grabs his arm. “Oooh getting serious already, I knew you’d be wild.” Phee recoils.

“I am ready to destroy you, Lucas Haunesson. This is everything I know about my home, get ready to be educated. So began their “date” Phee speaks passionately about her planet while Lucas smiles amusedly and eats the burger he ordered, nodding occasionally or interjecting his commentary about how weird her planet is compared to the Rift. The date goes on for only an hour and a half, by the time the check comes at 7:30, Lucas gets up and smiles at Phee. The next thing Phee knows, she is blinded and there is pressure on her lips. When her vision returns to normal she sees a note claiming the check has already been paid and her notebooks are all neatly stacked with a post-it note stuck on top with a sloppily drawn smiley face on it. Phee’s anger was palpable, the drink next to her begins to boil.

Hidden from Phee, crouching in a booth are Charlie and Mara. Mara looks murderous and Charlie looks eerily calm. 

“You can go get him now. Give him hell for me and Phee, okay? I’ll go a cheer up Phee” Mara searches Charlie’s eyes for deception, finding none, she gets up to go find Lucas, wanting to “talk” to him. Before she leaves though, Charlie could not help herself and made one last comment, “Perhaps you should show her what good dating looks like her in the Rift.” With a wink, Charlie scampered away, phasing out of the Maximum and walking through the front doors of the restaurant as if she just got to the Maximum, walking straight to Phee’s table. Mara slips out the back, catching up to Lucas quickly. The next day, Lucas enters school, with a black eye and his two front teeth missing, no one can get an answer out of him about the cause of such injuries.


End file.
